Lenovo revs up support for partners, unveils channel portal

In an attempt to engage more with its business partners around the world, tech titan Lenovo recently soft-launched an online support portal at the Canalys Channels Forum (CCF) in Macau.

Lenovo executives Nick Reynolds (left) and Ivan Chung (right) at the 2016 Canalys Channels Forum on October 25-27 in Macau

The CCF is a worldwide event designed to celebrate distributors’ role in the IT industry with hundreds of enterprises and thousands of delegates in attendance every year.

Nick Reynolds, chief marketing officer (COO) of Lenovo for Asia Pacific, said the website — called Lenovo Asia Pacific Channel Portal — is aimed at providing an enhanced and unified experience to its partners in the region.

“We listen to our business partners, and they told us that we have to improve our systems and improve our tools. This way, we can help them become more efficient and make it easier to do business,” said Reynolds, adding that Lenovo has already soft-launched the website and is now “live” in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

He said the new Lenovo business partner portal will be rolled out in the Philippines in the next six months.

Ivan Chung, regional general manager of Lenovo Central APAC, said the portal provides information on the latest pricing of its products, promotions, re-sale or rebates, or about how much money or incentives their partners would earn.

“After the formal launch, our channel partners can use the portal to see their targets and other marketing materials. They can also place their orders in the site,” said Chung, adding they have eight distributors in the Philippines.

Based on his discussions with two of their local distributors and Lenovo’s internal team, he said the “currency fluctuation is one of the key concerns of its business partners in the Philippines. “It is not just about Lenovo, but for the entire market,” he said.

But he said “the situation in the Philippines has already stabilized, and they (local partners) are expecting a more profitable business.”

In the whole Asia Pacific, Chung said 94 percent of its business goes through its partners. In the Philippines, 100 percent of its sales are delivered by local partners.

The executive claimed that Lenovo controls 90 percent of the local PC industry and 13 to 14 percent of the data center market.

Reynolds said while Lenovo’s core business is PC, they have two growth engines — mobile phones and data center.

“Globally, that is where we see greater growth coming from. But we still want to take market share when it comes from PC and tablet business. Our stated goal is to reach a global market share of 30 percent for PC,” the Lenovo executive said.

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